Sherlock Holmes: The Robert Downey Jr interview

Robert Downey Jr: I don't get scared, I get busy!

Sherlock Holmes: The Robert Downey Jr interview

Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock Holmes? Never would've thought of it. But Guy Ritchie (Snatch and Lock, Stock...) did. And while his gamble paid off worldwide (it's second at the B-O only to Avatar) as did his vision for Doyle's books and the most famous private-eye that never lived, it is Downey who takes centrestage with a great line-up this year. RDJ is back in business. Here are excerpts from an email interview with him.

Sherlock Holmes releases this Friday in India.

Were you ever scared about taking on the role of Sherlock Holmes, a decidedly British icon?
Scared? I don't get scared any more, I just get busy. I already knew by the time Guy was directing this that it was a fresh interpretation. I've worked with [producer] Joel Silver a bunch, I've lived with Susan Downey a bunch and [producer] Lionel Wigram is basically the person who figured out who to reprise this as a film, so I knew I was in good hands. Then it was just a matter of getting down to business. Fortunately, I'd spent some time here in the late '80s playing Chaplin and I had a great tutelage in all things British from Lord Attenborough so I felt like I had passed go. I definitely felt the onus of, it's not the fear of judgement of others, it's just at a certain point it just comes down to will you meet the standards that people are expecting of you and you expect of them?

Have you read the novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?
Yeah, I have read his novels. There's an esoteric element to the film as well in that sometimes you just feel like you're in the right groove and you feel the history and the legacy of something. I'm sure [Jude Law] could say this about Shakespeare having just done Hamlet, but sometimes you just feel like you are being silently approved of from some other place and time. There were times when we were so locked in exactly as Conan Doyle expressed it, and you can't beat the guy's words, so we had one of his quotes of a call sheet every day.

Your thoughts on Guy Ritchie directing the film.
He gives us a lot of leeway, but there are parameters. He let's us do our own thing and he'll watch and then he'll come in and, if he likes it, he'll letu00a0 just kind of go with it, and if he doesn't, everybody clears out and he steps in. He puts his writer's hat on and sits with them and hammers it out until we get the scene right. He's one of the most efficient directors we've ever worked with. He's very time-conscious, sometimes to the point where you're like, "Dude, just take the time you need. We'll make it work." I'll give you an example of that in a minute. At some point in shooting, he actually took on a guitar teacher because he felt that, you know, why shouldn't he be utilizing his time more efficiently while he's waiting around for set-ups.

There's a sequel, right? How many more of these are you game for?
We will soon work on the second sequel. Let's see how many can we add in to the Sherlock Holmes series (laugh).

Brad Pitt is rumoured to be playing Professor Moriarty (that's Holmes's arch-enemy) in the sequel. Your thoughts on Brad as a person and an actor?
The rumours have changed a couple of times, and I definitely talked to Brad about it. There's just really no telling where it's going to go. But the good news for us is that I think that this version of Holmes, if we're lucky, will really be a done and dusted calling card for whoever winds up being Moriarty, if we continue.

Your thoughts on the Globe nomination for Best Actor. Mean anything to you?
My heartfelt thanks to the Hollywood Foreign Press for this wonderful nomination. I share this honour with Jude Law and all of my cast-mates, my director Guy Ritchie and the rest of the team whose collaboration and camaraderie helped make this new incarnation of Sherlock Holmes possible.

We like to bring in the Indian connection to Hollywood every chance we get. What's yours?
I have watched a couple of Indian movies and loved them thoroughly. I think they make some brilliant cinema.
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Without mincing words, what do you think about Indians as a people?
I think Indians have strong cultural values which is so amazing.